April 2014 - Page 3 of 7

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

April 21, 2014/in blog, Reviews/by Frank Doorhof

Today some more information on the camera function of the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and my experience with Android.

A few weeks ago I was asked to test the Sony Xperia Compact Z1 next to my iPhone 5s and be honest about my experiences.
Well as you know I’m always honest in reviews so let’s see what I think about the phone after a few weeks.

1. Design
I can be short about this.
I like the design, it feels nice and it’s very lightweight. What I really like (and would love Apple to incorporate this) is that the phone is 100% water proof, I’ve already shot some cool shots in the rain with it and with the iPhone I would not have the guts to do this. And let’s be honest you don’t always carry your camera with you in the rain.

2. Screen quality
Compared to the iPhone 5s I think the screen quality is about equal, the Sony is a bit sharper in some areas but I like the color accuracy of the iPhone just a bit more. What I do like is the screen size of the Sony, I don’t believe in phones where you do some extra fitness by carrying a small iPad as phone so for me this screen size is pretty much perfect, maybe a little bit bigger but not too much.

3. The camera
Well it’s a Sony right…
And I think Sony by now already proved they know how to build a sensor and the camera in the Z1 Compact is a very nice one.
With higher ISO I strongly feel the iPhone 5s wins hands down, but as long as the light is pretty nice the Z1 Compact has one heck of a camera, I love it.

The camera has 2 settings, the full auto which will give you a lower resolution but will optimize everything for you, and the full manual (including exposure compensation which I really like) which gives you the full resolution and loads of extra option to play with. Overall I’m more than happy with the camera and it would actually be a reason to carry the Z1 Compact with me just to be able to use it as a camera when I don’t carry anything else.

A shot we recently took in the studio with the Sony.
On my Flickr I have a whole album with images by the way if you want to see more.

A topic on the light meter

April 19, 2014/6 Comments/in Light meter, blog/by Frank Doorhof

I recently put a topic on social media and got so many good responses that I thought it also needed a place on the blog. Now let me make one thing 100% clear before starting this topic. The light-meter is a tool, it’s nothing less and nothing more. If you don’t use a light-meter you’re not a bad person, you are without any doubt not a lesser photographer than someone who is using it, I think that from all “photographers” out there now a days less than 1% is using a light meter, from the pros this percentage will be a little bit higher and as you know those people can create stunning images.

I for one however strongly believe that someone that is into photography should at least look at the light meter to see what it does and how it operates, because if you use one, one thing is for sure it WILL speed up your workflow considerably and also helps you to create the same quality of exposure over and over again.

Now in the past I’ve written a lot on the subject and I still believe that there are areas that I did not touch (so who knows what you will see more in the future), during my workshops and talks to photographers I find that the group using a meter is very very small, when I talk about the reasons I often get the same responses “You don’t need it with digital right?” and that’s ok, with digital you can indeed judge an image on the “instant polaroid” on the back of your camera or on your screen. However I also get responses like “I use the histogram”, “I always thought meters were only for the landscape guys”, “I was told that the meter was inaccurate and that with digital you could nail the exposure so much better”…..

I’m not sponsored by Sekonic (and trust me I tried :D) but somehow the whole light meter thing did got me thinking and I decided a few years ago during PSW to do a class on why I use a meter with stunning results (I believe they sold out the meters in a few hours) ever since it’s been a solid part of what I teach.